By DK Sinha
Patna: The face-off between the government and opposition over Bihar Special Armed Police Bill 2021, which will have the power to special armed police officers to arrest people even without a warrant, spilled over to the State Legislative Council on Wednesday as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took the command to launch a blistering attack on the Opposition members for what happened in the lower house a day before.
Nitish, reacting sharply to the opposition’s protest over the ill treatment meted out to several legislators when in the Bihar Assembly, police were called in to assist marshals to evict disruptive Opposition MLAs in the state assembly, said MLAs of the opposition camp were responsible for the uproarious scenes. He also defended the decision to call police personnel inside the Bihar assembly as there was no other option left.
Unprecedented scenes were created in the Bihar assembly on Tuesday when Opposition MLAs were dragged, manhandled by policemen and carried out on stretchers after the Speaker was virtually held hostage inside his chamber. The opposition members were agitated over a legislation that gives more power to the state’s police force to search people and make arrests. The Special Armed Police Bill, 2021 was passed by voice vote late Tuesday night.
Patna District Magistrate and senior superintendent of police reached the state assembly on hearing about the chaos even as police personnel started evicting the protesting MLAs from the house. Women lawmakers who climbed the podium and tried to stop the Speaker from sitting were removed by policewomen.
